Influenza virus - what else we did not know about it?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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More than 95% of all acute infectious diseases caused by viruses and bacteria are influenza and colds of different nature. They have already hit more than 15% of all people in the world. It's more than 500 million people every year around the globe. Of these, 2 million people say goodbye to this world because of the flu. Why are flu viruses so dangerous and what are they?
[Such different influenza viruses
For the first time the influenza virus was discovered in 1931. After 2 years, the British physicians described it officially and identified it. Three years later, viruses began to divide into subspecies-for example, influenza with the causative agent of the B virus was identified, and in 1947, scientists isolated the influenza virus by type C. What are the different types of influenza viruses?
The influenza A virus that causes the flu is one of the most common. He excites the flu with moderate and mild severity. This virus is so easily transmitted from person to person and from animal to person, which can infect entire cities with epidemics (especially in ancient times). These epidemics are so great that scientists call them pandemics.
The virus of group B with spread is simpler. For example, it does not cause pandemics, but it can cause local outbreaks in a certain city or village. But there are many such settlements, not in one, but in several countries. Moreover, the influenza A virus and the influenza B virus do not interfere with each other and can manifest in the same human society equally intensively. True, for virus A it is more typical to affect adults, and for virus B - children. But neither children nor adults are immune from the fact that both can travel to their bodies.
There is also the influenza C virus, which is not very well known to scientists, despite all the novelties of modern equipment. This virus is not transmitted to animals or from them to humans. Having infected with this flu virus, a person may not even suspect what a serious illness he has, because he gets rid of a slight discomfort. Symptoms that occur with infection with the influenza C virus may not appear at all or may appear in a very mild form. Virus C can affect a person at the same time as an influenza A
How is the flu virus transmitted?
Very easy. So you sneezed, cough, say hello or worse - they kissed an infected person - and caught the flu just like him. By transmission of the influenza virus is considered airborne, and this is true for all three influenza viruses. Disease-creating flora very quickly penetrates the body of another person, and you can get infected from a distance of up to three meters.
Therefore, do not go yourself and do not lead the child into the collective, where there are patients, and do not infect others. Isolation of the patient is the only correct way in case of infection with the influenza virus.
The influenza virus is an easy and very nosy enemy, which is desirable to be avoided. It's much easier than getting rid of it after a week or two.
How does the flu manifest itself?
It is estimated that an ordinary person who is ill with the flu is not very often, throughout his life spends about a year in bed because of this disease. At this time, the patient manifests such symptoms of influenza as headache, weakness, weakness, fever, cough, runny nose, drying of the mucous membrane of the throat and nose. A person feels completely overwhelmed by viruses that penetrate all the body systems and poison him with toxins.
If the flu lasts a long time, viruses poison the body so much that a person has complications. This is a violation of the vital organs: kidneys, liver, heart, blood vessels, lungs. A person immediately after the flu is also sick with pneumonia, meningoencephalitis or tracheobronchitis.
Previously, influenza viruses brought even greater destruction - in 1580 historians recorded a global epidemic of influenza, which claimed many lives. Then did not know how to deal with the influenza virus. And even now, when there are many advanced medical technologies, people sometimes die from this disease. Therefore, it is worth vaccinating against the flu even before the height of epidemics and observe personal hygiene, as the influenza virus is transmitted by airborne droplets.